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HIGH GEAR/MAY 1978
OUR WORLD IN REVOLT
BY GEORGE BROWN
OUR WORLD IN REVOLT OF THE PERVERTS, a collection of nineteen short stories, at least half of which qualify as short short, Daniel Curzon powerfully defines much of this complex world and comments on it. Against backgrounds that include steambaths, bars, the street, and the everyday scene (mostly the last, for isn't this where most of us function?), Curzon presents the wise and the foolish, the weak and the strong, including both those in the closet and out--and those in the process of emerging. We see ourselves and our fellows, and we understand ourselves and our fellows better. If straights will read the stories, they will understand us, and themselves, better too.
In a minimum of pages this compelling writer characterizes well. His dialogue is crisp and authentic, and although he doesn't use many words describing settings, they come vividly alive. His plotting is good, and his style is vigorous. He is both critical and affirmative. He gives sermons without seeming to preach, and through his tough compassion he is able to make unsympathetic characters sympathetic. Curzon, a
forceful mixture of ruggedness, tenderness, anger, patience, and impatience, is a gay writer who cares about his gay brothers and sisters, even the unattractive ones and the bitchy ones (enough to want the latter to change). Although he sometimes criticizes his gay brothers, he is most volatile when he is critizing a prejudiced and inflexible society. When he turns to satire for this, as in "Let's Make Babies, Darling," he is chilling. He displayed this same chilling in the opening of his first novel, SOMETHING YOU DO IN THE DARK (1971), a work which contains a highly significant statement on gay life and the society which restricts it.
Curzon is also chilling when he uses symbolism, as in "The Hideous Beast," which graphically comments on aging and death. Although set in a steambath, this short speaks for all mortals, although homosexuals in general are supposed to fear aging more than heterosexuals
do.
And he is chilling in "Hatred," which he admits is mostly autobiographical, in which he details his relationship with a famous woman writer, whose identity he conceals in name only, and then hardly that. This absorbing piece of writing,
mostly an essay, explains his fascinating self and his hopes, frustrations, triumps, and losses. He really does a job. on the woman writer, showing her to be something other than what she seems to be; and since his writing rings true, we accept his analysis. The ending, which is fiction, is perhaps a little too farfetched, something he felt he had to concoct for the sake of a dramatic ending. Why didn't he let the piece stand as a memoir?
Curzon is letter-perfect in "In a Fresno Bar," in which he shows the despair of the cruiser as he takes us on a Saturday night with a gay macho. He is painfully honest, and significant,, in "You Get What You Pay for," in which he shows a related kind of despair: the despair, arising from sexual need, that leads us to adventure, which is hardly adventure but merely a sordid experience, a universal theme, certainly for gay people (and others too). In "The Essential Fag: A Sermon" he introduces Dana, a stereotyped bitchy gay, who, unfortunately, is not a rare type. In "Mother's Day" he turns to sweet compassion, and it is a lovely story, with a surprise ending, of a thirtytwo-year-old man's confrontation with his mother about his
gay nature. And in "Virility" he
vividly presents two characters who exist all over: the gentle and mild homosexual who is attracted to the intrinsic macho-macho even though he likes male sex, on a bisexual basis. The resulting problem of such a relationship is almost unsolvable, and Curzon doesn't play god and solve it. Neither can he solve the treacherous problem in "Pity" when young Ken, a victim of cerebral palsy, enters a gay bath, but he handles the drama well, saying a ream in less than three pages.
Some readers may criticize Curzon as downbeat for ending some of his stories without a solution, but then isn't that life? There aren't pat solutions to all our problems. Better to be downbeat and honest than optimistic and false. It is vital that the serious writer, and Curzon is ever that, present the problem with insight as his characters grapple with it. Thus he equips the reader to handle his own problem better.
Is this sensible, com-
passionate, and justifiably angry writer also cynical? He evidently doesn't believe that romantic love is what it is cracked up to be, saying this at least three times. in "Love, Love, Love," """Wooing," and "Dear Abby," /, Please Help Me. I May Never
COMMUNITY PHONE REFERENCE
CLEVELAND
GAY ORGANIZATIONS
Gay Hotline 621-3380
Gay Community Center 621-4330, Dignity/Cleveland 791-0942
Nativity Fellowship Church 951-8705
HEALTH CARE
V.D. 24 Hour Information Tape 621-2191
Gay Alcoholics
241-2619
East Side Free Clinic 721-4010
·
Near West Side Free Clinic 281-4242 Free Clinic of Lake Co. 255-6783
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Love Again!" Or is this really being cynical? Romantic love in general is being debunked from a lot of sources these days. Romantic fantasy has created a lot of problems. (But, Mr. Curzon, you do believe that romantic love can exist, and endure, don't you--and among gays? Of course, you do. But I can't find affirmation of it in any of your nineteen stories, and I can't recall any such affirmation in your fine novel, SOMETHING YOU DO IN THE DARK, although that novel pleads for an affectionate gay brotherhood. Yes, if I should want to make an issue of this, you could reply. "Define your terms!)
The versatile writer is very good in his one lesbian story, "The Lady or the Tigers," showing a married woman schoolteacher confronting her husband and parents about her homosexual dilemma. Women often write of male homosexuals, but it is rare for a man to write of female homosexuals. This man does it with the same incisiveness and credibility that he gives to his other stores.
In his preface Curzon does an audacious thing. He briefly states what to him is the theme or main point of each story. To (Continued on Page 12)
CINCINNATI
Gay Men's Hotline 241-0001 Lesbian Referral Line 621-CARE Dignity-621-4811
M.C.C.241-8218
Dignity-426-1836
DAYTON
Gay Center 278-3963
Lesbian-Feminist League 275-3606
KENT
Kent Gay Liberation Front 672-2068
WOMEN
Cleveland Women's Counseling 321-8585
WomenSpace 391-6650
Rape Crisis Center 391-3912
Women's Growth Cooperative 321-8582
Oven Productions 371-1697.
What She Wants 391-6551
A.C.L.U. 781-6276
Legal Aid Society 861-6242
LEGAL
Oberlin College Gay Union Ohio Gay Rights Coalition
OBERLIN
775-8131 775-8131
TOLEDO
Personal Rights Organization 243-9351
BOWLING GREEN
YELLOW SPRINGS
Gay Union 352-8712
COLUMBUS
Gay Alliance 443-7892 Dignity Columbus 274-1029 Central Ohio Lesbians 291-9114 Gay Law Association 422-1764 Central Ohio Gay Coalition 2919114
Gay Peer Counselling 294-6337 Parents and Friends 294-0982 Women's Music Union 299-4587 Metropolitan
Church 299-8714
Community
Gay Alcoholic Help 864-5440
Antioch Gay Liberation 767-7311 x217
AKRON
M.C.C.-836-3930
* *
CASCADE COMMUNITY CHURCH 434-6709
If there are any organizations not listed that you feel should be, please write:
Community Phone Reference
C/O HIGH GEAR
P.O. BOX 6177
CLEVELAND OHIO 44101